Close on the heels of Germany's second-ranking lender Commerzbank's Friday announcement of a 716 million euros ($954 million) loss for the 2012 fourth quarter, the bank's CEO Martin Blessing said that he is neither asking for a bonus after a year of meagre profits, nor any dividend for shareholders.

With the partly state-owned Commerzbank reporting a poor performance for the 2012 fourth quarter, Blessing gave a downbeat outlook for 2013, projecting the year to be one of restructuring which will cost "effort, money and time."

Since the reported fourth-quarter loss figures were largely because of one-time losses of 185 million euros on Commerzbank's sale of Bank Forum in Ukraine and 560 million euros in tax accounting charges, Blessing said that the lender's revenues, calculated before provisioning for loan losses, "will remain under pressure" for 2013.

Terming the bank's only _6 million ($8 million) profit for 2012 year as "unsatisfactory," Blessing told the directors' board that he would not be drawing any performance-related bonus. However, he also added alongside that the other top executives of the bank's management committee would still get 40 percent of their bonuses; with managers lower down the hierarchy taking home even more.

Pointing out that a bigger sacrifice needs to be made by the executives with greater authority, Blessing - citing a "responsibility pyramid" - said: "I am at the top, and find that a larger contribution is correct and justified."